It has been quite a start to 2017 for Andy Carroll. After being dogged by injuries, the West Ham striker is finally back fit and seems to be firing on all cylinders.

Three goals in his last two appearances have coincided with two impressive victories for West Ham, and the former England man looks set to keep his place this week.

Here, Sportsmail's Head of Sport Lee Clayton listened in on Carroll's frank and honest discussion with columnist Jamie Redknapp...

Andy Carroll, back in the West Ham starting line-up, sat down for a chat with Jamie Redknapp

The West Ham striker believes his incredible overhead kick against Palace was his best goal

JAMIE REDKNAPP: That overhead kick goal against Crystal Palace in mid-January… look at it. It should tell you how good you are. It was spot on, pure technique. Surely your best?

ANDY CARROLL: I'll take that… 'pure technique'… thanks! I enjoyed it. I thought, 'give it a go'. It was 100 per cent my best goal. Before that, it was my header for England against Sweden. Stevie G whipped it in and I scored with a header. I scored another good one for Newcastle against Liverpool in a 3-1 win, but I remember that more for the night out after! My mates were in the stand and I climbed straight into their box, got changed and we walked to the pub. They were showing the goal. The whole place erupted, we were jumping up and down too. We didn't have to pay for drinks that night! It was good, man…

REDKNAPP: The Palace goal was significant timing. The whole issue with Dimitri Payet had blown up. My mate was at the ground and he rang me, shouting, I could hear the cheers still — I couldn't wait to see it.

The West Ham striker is back in the team after significant injury woes and appears on top form

Carroll says he didn't realise how good his goal was until he saw the reaction of his team-mates

CARROLL: It was a great feeling. I didn't realise how good it was until the lads caught up with me and I could see their reaction, from James Collins, Mark Noble. I'd tried one the Thursday before in training and hit the post. After that game, we were all talking about 'feeling the fans'. There wasn't so much of a connection at the new stadium. It's been tough but we felt that was a game when we all came together. We were talking about the noise they made. We were buzzing about it.

REDKNAPP: A goal like that… does it make you question if you have achieved enough with your ability? Could you have done more? Marks out of 10 for your career?

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CARROLL: Six — Newcastle, yeah good. Liverpool: never really happened. Here? In spells, yes. Not really done what I know I can do and believe I will do. There's a lot more. Yes, I'll give myself six. Nine caps for England, there are more caps in me. I've always thought I could play for England if I am on my game — if I am fit.

REDKNAPP: You are on your game now. I hope you go on from here because you've suffered bad injuries. I can sympathise with you because of my injuries…

CARROLL: When I've been injured, my head's gone, I've turned to mush. The one at the start of this season… all the hard work went out of the window. I was in a mess.

Sportsmail's Head of Sport Lee Clayton listened in on Carroll's discussion with Redknapp

The 28-year-old has nine caps for England but believes he can offer more to the Three Lions

I was a big drinker and have regrets but that’s the old me

I've spoken to a professional, to try to clear my head and to find positives. Always the feeling is: 'I need to sort it out, something is not right.'

You come into training after the other lads, you work alone, don't train with them. They try to help, your missus tries, your parents try, nobody can help you back on to the pitch. You ask: 'What am I doing wrong? What can I change?' Now, I have listened. To the physios, my mum, my dad, my missus. I hate gym work, but I am doing more of that.

People have been telling me for years, but I can't stand it. I'd go through the motions but now I am in there every day trying to do everything right. I have tried yoga, with my missus. Hot yoga! It takes it out of me, I need to make sure I have a day to recover so I don't do it as much as I should.

REDKNAPP: I'd go to the toilets at Anfield and recite the Lord's Prayer. I'm not religious but I reached the stage where I'd do anything to stay fit. Are you more careful now?

Carroll admits it 'never really happened' for him at Liverpool after he signed for £35million

Carroll has spoken to professionals about how to deal with his injuries and the recovery

CARROLL: A little more clever. I have to be. I don't have to try to win every ball. There is always the next ball. You could say I'm not winning so many balls, but pick your battles.

REDKNAPP: Players with poor injury records struggle to trust their body. They are worried about what will happen next? Do you trust yours?

CARROLL: Yes. I can't doubt myself. I've always been able to put injuries out of my head. I can't remember them now. Was it right or left, knee or ankle? I have to see a ball and believe I can win it, not worry about what might happen.

The physio is anxious because, even in my first day back in training, he will see me sprinting about, tackling, he's shouting 'easy, easy'. But I play at 100 per cent, I don't hold back. I can't think about what might go wrong or what has gone wrong before.

REDKNAPP: Were you living your life right? I used to still go out with my team-mates when I was injured and then wonder why my knee had swollen up the next day. Why did I do that?

Carroll has even tried hot yoga with partner Billi Mucklow in an attempt to heal after injuries

The Gateshead-born striker says he used to be a big drinker but has now turned his life around

I don’t much like watching football on TV and don’t have it on in my house

CARROLL: The drink doesn't help. In the past I was a big drinker, I have been tarnished with that and I don't enjoy that. That is the old me. I have regrets looking back, maybe it would have helped me avoid injuries.

But now? Alcohol is not the cause. Now I am doing whatever I can. I have a weird thing about salt: no salt. Then I drink lots of water but I've been reading that too much water can be bad for you, so now less water. In my head, I've turned it over, I am looking at it all. Diet: right, sleeping: right, fitness: right. It's all there.

REDKNAPP: This is the calmest you have been in your life, then?

CARROLL: Yes, 100 per cent. Chilled out Saturday night at home on the sofa watching terrible TV. Putting the little one to bed. I didn't watch Match of the Day after my goal against Palace. I don't really like watching football. My mum and dad watch a game on one screen, listen to radio commentary and have the laptop open for score flashes! I walk in the house… oh God! I need to switch off. I don't have it on in my house, unless I have friends over.

I try to get involved more these days so I can be involved in banter with the lads or else they hammer me. They think I'm weird. They'll talk about players and I'm thinking: 'Who are they talking about?' Sometimes the manager puts the opposition team up and I'm thinking: 'Who is that centre half or where's he from?'.

Redknapp and Carroll chat at the West Ham training ground as the West Ham striker opens up

Carroll is currently scoring week in, week out but he doesn't like watching football at home

REDKNAPP: It doesn't matter because if the ball comes into the box then you are going to beat him anyway! I was the opposite to you. I obsessed about everything.

CARROLL: Jamie, when I was leaving Newcastle for Liverpool, I was in the helicopter on the way down and I had to go to Google to find out who their players were, looking on the phone. I was signing (for a British record £35million) and I didn't know who my team-mates would be!

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I knew Stevie and some of the others but not all of them. And I loved it at Newcastle. I wasn't ready to leave. It came as a shock. I'd had a season ticket, it was my club and it was a shock to move. I was 22. I could never get a grip at Liverpool.

REDKNAPP: So it was a relief to come here in 2012?

CARROLL: More than that. I walked in and I felt at home. It was a good feeling. The fans welcomed me and I felt the same as I did at Newcastle, as if I was with a group of lads I liked and had grown up with.

REDKNAPP: You say there is more to come but your recent form since coming back from injury is good. There's a bit of swagger about you.

Carroll joined Liverpool for a British record £35m but admits he didn't know all his team-mates

He says he felt at home instantly when he joined West Ham after a tough spell at Anfield

CARROLL'S CAREER

2006-2011: Newcastle United

----> 2007-2008 Preston (loan)

2011-2013: Liverpool

----> 2012-2013: West Ham (loan)

2013-present: West Ham

CARROLL: Do you know what it is? Five or six weeks ago, I sensed something wasn't right among the lads. The team were struggling, we were split in small groups, there were cliques, results were poor. Then we started coming together, before the Dimi thing, but then when that happened it was: 'bang!' We have to be together, we are together. Everyone started enjoying it again. Everyone started to look forward to coming to training. I can't wait to see the lads.

REDKNAPP: Payet has acted as if to say, 'I am too good for the club, I have to move on…' I think that does bring everyone else together. It has to.

CARROLL: It has just sparked something in the dressing room. If he doesn't want to be part of our team, we are still a team. We've livened up. Just like it should have been. It kick-started our season. It has been great around the dressing room.

REDKNAPP: He's a great player, though. My youngest son has a West Ham shirt with his name on the back.

Carroll is quick to sing the praises of Michail Antonio, who he says has been the 'main player'

He admits that after his goal against Palace, it was left to his partner to put him back in line

CARROLL: We've got other top players… Antonio has been great. He's scored the goals, played all over the pitch. He's been our main player. It's mad. Right back to centre forward, quality, power, strength — ridiculous. Ridiculous! A beast!

REDKNAPP: And you too. Come on, time to sing your praises. You are a leader. You are back!

CARROLL: The lads are hammering me for doing this interview! We are close.

Over breakfast and lunch, they are saying: 'You've only scored a couple of goals, what are you doing that for?' I am like: 'Yeah: three in two, you need me, look at the points I've got on the board for you'. They come back with: 'Not training today? Another massage, another spa day?'

I like all that. I'm not being big headed, I get pulled into line. After that goal (against Palace) I walked around at home saying: 'I'm the boy', but my missus said: 'No you are not. Shut up and sit down!'

REDKNAPP: I've just watched training. I was watching the influence of Mark Noble. He's the guv'nor here.

Carroll says the team feel more united following the departure of Dimitri Payet to Marseille

The striker has the bragging rights in the dressing room after three goals in his last two games

CARROLL: I can't believe I am saying this, but yes. He runs it. He's the main man, a West Ham boy through and through. Every day he brings the lads together, he gets involved, he's a leader. He's West Ham.

REDKNAPP: What else do you do with your time? Do you play any golf?

CARROLL: No. I have a farm at my house so that takes up my time. Two little dogs, one big dog, a snake, a fish, rabbit, chickens. This morning I was up walking the dogs, feeding the animals and then the missus said she was off to the gym so I had to feed our son.

Then here for the gym. That's my life now, but I'm happy.

I've seen what Kevin Nolan (now at Notts County) has done going into management and I never thought it was for me, but I might change that.

I'm thinking about whether I want to be a coach or a manager. I'm not good talking to big groups but it might be time to get over that. It might be time to watch a bit more football!

Mark Noble is the guv'nor at West Ham; Carroll says he is the main man and leads the group

The 28-year-old has taken inspiration from ex team-mate Kevin Nolan's route into coaching

ENGLAND CAREER

Andy Carroll made his England senior debut in 2010, and has so far played nine matches for the Three Lions.

Carroll scored against Ghana at Wembley in March 2011, and against Sweden at Euro 2012 in June 2012

REDKNAPP: You have a six-year contract…

CARROLL: I am enjoying it here and I am hoping for a new contract here. I'm 28. I'd like to stay here.

REDKNAPP: Who is your toughest opponent?

CARROLL: Gary Cahill. Timing, reading, good leap, very good. And Liverpool's Lucas Leiva. Oh my God. He played centre half against us. I don't know what it was. Every time I went for the ball he gave me a little nudge, the referee was never going to give a foul and I never wanted a foul, but he did me every time. Just judging me so well and knocking me off balance. I couldn't play against him.

REDKNAPP: Do you prefer to have a war with the defender?

CARROLL: Yes, I like a battle. Ashley Williams loves that. I enjoy it against him. Makes you feel like you are in a game. I'd rather have a fight than just winning it without a challenge.

Fellow England man Gary Cahill is picked out by Carroll as a particularly difficult opponent

Carroll believes an English centre forward should be tall, strong and good with his feet

REDKNAPP: Are there days in the tunnel when you look at the opposition and think: 'You can't live with me.'

CARROLL: Yeah, I do. Nobes loves it when I tell him that. He gives me a big cuddle. 'Just cross it,' I said to Sam Byram (before Middlesbrough). 'You know what to do, don't you?'

'Yeah, cross it'.

REDKNAPP: Are we snobs in this country about big strikers?

CARROLL: Yes. Peter Crouch is an example. Fantastic, never got the credit he deserves. An English centre forward should be tall, strong, good with his feet. I admire small strikers from abroad, but let's also recognise strength, power, height too.

REDKNAPP: Have you always played as a striker?

CARROLL: When I was 15, I had played as a striker and I was the only left-footed player in the team, so they put me left back. My contract was running down and I knew I was in trouble, so I had to knock on the door and ask them to play me up top. I scored a few goals. I've been there ever since.

According to Carroll, Stoke striker Peter Crouch never got the credit he deserves as a player

Carroll says he was put at left back during his early years but then asked to play up front